Jerry Jones’ biggest “what if” still haunts Cowboys fans: how ego ended a dynasty
In the midst of a dynasty, Jerry Jones fired the head coach who helped get them there. And their history since has been significantly less glorious.
In the new Netflix docuseries “America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys”, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones reflects on the dynasty of the 1990s. He said that watching the series was an ”emotional experience" and at times a “a painful reminder”. Of course, one of the emotional reminders centered around his feud with former head coach Jimmy Johnson. For Cowboys fans, it’s more than just emotional. It’s the great “what if” that still hangs over the franchise three decades later.
#Cowboys owner Jerry Jones says the quiet part out loud:
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) August 13, 2025
“The Cowboys are a soap opera 365 days a year. When it gets slow, I stir it up… There is controversy. That controversy is good stuff in terms of keeping and having people’s attention.” pic.twitter.com/F6ecKbaIjB
Back in 1994, Dallas was on top of the football world, riding back-to-back Super Bowl wins and poised to dominate the NFL for years to come. Johnson and Jones had rebuilt the Cowboys from a 1-15 laughing stock into a dynasty behind The Triplets - Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin - and one of the league’s most talented rosters. Instead, Jones stunned the football world by firing Johnson. The split wasn’t about losing. It was about control, credit, and ego.
The Cowboys won one more championship without him, but never returned to glory. Since then, the team has just five playoff wins in 29 years. Fans are left to wonder: If Jimmy had stayed, how many more Lombardi trophies would sit in Dallas today? In fact, Jones himself posed that same question after reflecting on the series.
Jerry vs Jimmy and the Cowboys dynasty that might’ve been
The clash between Jerry and Jimmy was about control. Johnson wanted to run football operations his way. Jones, still fresh off mortgaging his financial future to buy the Cowboys, wanted both recognition and authority. The ego clash ended with Johnson being forced out just months after lifting the Lombardi Trophy.
Dallas didn’t collapse right away. With Barry Switzer on the sideline, the Cowboys captured another Super Bowl in 1995. But it was Johnson’s roster that made it possible. Once his fingerprints faded, so did the dynasty. Not only have the Cowboys not returned to the Super Bowl - they haven’t even reached the NFC Championship game.
After watching the Netflix series and rehashing the feud, Jones admitted that the stress of nearly going bankrupt when buying the team left him with little patience for sharing power. In his own words, he “lost the tolerance” needed for collaboration.
But Jones himself ponders on what could’ve happened had the business side been easier. A Jones less scarred by financial strain might have let Johnson focus on football while he built the Cowboys into the NFL’s commercial juggernaut.
“You probably, from my perspective, would have had some more years there, had I not danced with the devil like I did when I bought ’em and I came so close to dying, financially dying,” Jones said. “And I actually thought I was going to, so I lost a tolerance that I might have had, had it been a little easier. To get to the point, I had none left.”
Together, Jones and Johnson could have been unstoppable - Johnson building champions on the field, Jones building an empire off it. Instead, their paths diverged, and so did Dallas’s fortunes.
“It was a little bit of a painful reminder, in many areas, of some of the controversial and, if you will, some of the very trying times that I felt I was having early when I bought the Cowboys,” Jones said.
Speaking of painful - for Dallas faithful, the Netflix series will reopen old wounds. While it celebrates the glory years, it also underscores the decades of frustration since. Every January disappointment circles back to 1994: the moment the dynasty was cut short. Even Johnson’s belated induction into the Ring of Honor in 2023 felt bittersweet - a reconciliation decades late.
Jones says the documentary experience made him nostalgic and grateful. But Cowboys fans are still left with the nagging question of how many more banners might be hanging at AT&T Stadium if Jerry and Jimmy had stayed together.
The eight-part Netflix documentary series, “America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys”, will debut on Netflix this Tuesday, August 19.
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